Monday, December 24, 2012

Tonight in This Stable There is Peace

The great men and
women of prayer throughout the centuries were privileged to receive an interior
union with the Lord that enabled them to descend into the depths beyond the
word. They are therefore able to unlock for us the hidden treasures of prayer.

And we may be sure
that each of us, along with our totally personal relationship with God, is
received into, and sheltered within, this prayer. Again and again, each one of
us with his mens, his own spirit, must go out to meet, open himself to,
and submit to the guidance of the vox, the word that comes to us from
the Son. In this way his own heart will be opened, and each individual will
learn the particular way in which the Lord wants to pray with him.

Jesus
of Nazareth 1, 133

Reflection – I have set myself the challenge this week of relating every post and
the randomly generated passage I select from Ratzinger’s writings to the
Christmas mystery. This rather beautiful passage about prayer lends itself to
this in a strange kind of way.

Christmas for most people can become a
frenetic time. Lots to do—decorating, cooking, shopping, traveling perhaps—and
lots of activities and events: parties, meals, caroling, family rituals, maybe
even the odd church service.

While that is the nature of festivity and
as such is right and proper (if a bit fatiguing), it can get us a bit out of
balance if we are not careful. Prayer is needed at all times to put us back
into reality and into interior peace and stability.

To pray at Christmas, in the midst of all
the noise and rush and celebratory fuss—this is a great gift. And I think there
is a special grace of prayer at this time of year, if we look for it. God comes
to us with such delicacy and beauty at Christmas, the little baby lying on
straw in the manger, his lovely mother hovering over him, the star shining and
the angels singing, the kings and shepherds adoring.

There is trouble and fuss
beforehand—getting to Bethlehem was a terribly busy rush for Mary and Joseph. There will be great
trouble and fuss and much worse—tragedy and loss—afterwards. The flight into Egypt
with a newborn baby must have been a great suffering for them. But here and
now, this night, in this stable, there is great peace, great beauty, great
silence, deep prayer. And I think this silence and prayer is waiting for us in
the Christmas season, perhaps at the crèche set, perhaps before the Lord
Himself in the tabernacle, perhaps in the silence of your own heart. Sometimes
we do need to step away from all the noise and fuss of the feast to find that
silence.

So, while I wish you all a most merry
Christmas, I also want to wish you a prayer-y Christmas (ouch). After all, He
came for this, that each one of us could find Him readily and certainly and
come into this deep and total union of love with Him, and so be conformed to
His life and love in the world, and be happy with Him forever in the next
world.

This will be my last blog post for at least
a couple of days. My own Christmas will have a different kind of ‘fuss’ to it
this year. On Boxing Day (that’s December 26 for you Americans), myself and two
of the Madonna House lay staff will board a train for Halifax to attend
the Rise-Up event
hosted by Catholic Christian Outreach, a wonderful Canadian university
evangelization group. Since I have no idea whatsoever what will be the
schedule, the accommodations, the internet access, or much else indeed about
what the next week has in store, I don’t know when regular blogging will
resume. Might be December 27, might be January 3!

So I do indeed wish you all a Merry Christmas
and a very Happy New Year, beg your prayers for me and mine and assure you of
my prayers for all of you. I look forward to another year of German Shepherding
with you all!

Stuff By Me You Can Buy

What This Blog is About

This blog was first called 'Life With a German Shepherd,'and was exclusively dedicated to promoting the writings of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI. Upon his resignation on February 28, 2013, the name and focus changed, and it was called Ten Thousand Places, broadening out the search for God's face and God's truth to a multitude of writers and artists who have reflected this in various ways.

In January 2015, feeling a need for a new departure in blogging, I re-named the blog 'Getting to the Point', now placing the emphasis on basic catechesis, evangelization, and a constant search for the essential matter of God, man, Church, world, and life. I hope you enjoy it.